Just a quick post about what you can look forward to seeing this week.

Tuesday. KHL’s leaders Atlant Mytischi host Ak Bars Kazan.

Wednesday. The brand new IIHF European Champions League starts. The KHL is represented by last year’s Russian Superliga champions Salavat Yulayev Ufa and last year’s European Cup winners Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Magnitka does not have a game this Wednesday, but Salavat will take on HC České Budějovice, last year’s regular season champs in the Czech Extraliga, and we’ll have that game for you to check out.

Thursday. Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Cherepanov and the rest of Avangard Omsk visit Moscow to take on Spartak.

Friday. Salavat Yulayev Ufa are flying all the way to Khabarovsk, the Eastern most KHL city to take on Amur.

One of those games we got a chance to see for ourselves. A great, open game played at an incredible pace. Boris Mikhaylov’s troops from Novokuznetsk were not afraid to get into a run and gun contest with the one of the KHL’s powerhouses, Ak Bars Kazan. It was also our first chance to see the 16-year old Maxim Kitsyn, the youngest player in the KHL. He’s #91 (sporting a full face shield) on the Metallurg squad.

This week’s must see game features currently the top 2 teams in the KHL. These are also two hottest teams in the league coming into the game on long winning streaks. Atlant won 6 straight while Avangard is on a 7-game winning streak (which coincidentally or not started right after they fired their coach… who said Jaromir Jagr can’t be a player coach?). The game also features the current points leader in the entire league, Sergei Mozyakin of Atlant and the current top goal scorer, Jaromir Jagr (10). New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov is coming into the match on his own streak having scored goals in 5 straight games and having scored points in 7 straight. If all of this weren’t enough the game also features two former NHL goalies, John Graham of Ak Bars and Ray Emery of Atlant. Both are playing very well so far sporting a .930 save percentage. We just had to check this one out for ourselves and it didn’t disappoint.

Magnitka’s first game after the Victoria Cup game vs. the New York Rangers turned into quite an ill tempered affair. Fans of hockey fisticuffs might want to check this one out. Who says Russians don’t fight?

Another chance to see the 16-year old Maxim Kitsyn, this time in a game vs. last season’s Russian Superliga champs, Salavat. For Salavat this is the last KHL game before they make their debut in the brand new European Champions League.

We just found out, to our great excitement, that the New York Rangers games vs. the Swiss club SC Bern and the inaugural Victoria Cup final against current European Cup champions, Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL will be shown live in North America not just on local New York based MSG, but also nationally on NHL Network!

The game vs. SC Bern will be shown at noon Eastern on Tuesday and the Victoria Cup vs. the Russian Magnitka Wed at 1:30 PM Eastern.

Update: If you’re unable to watch the game on the NHL Network look for a link to the Russian telecast of it on this site sometime on Thursday or Friday. Delayed coverage of it was just added. Yes, amazingly enough it won’t be shown live in Russia because of this week’s UEFA Champions League matches.

Update #2: You can watch the MSG telecast of the game almost in its entirety (unfortunately the first 5 minutes including a great first goal by Magnitka are missing) split into 10 parts here. We linked to part 1. We’re sure you can figure out the rest.